The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on December 16 an appeal challenging the Madras High Court order allowing the Madras Music Academy to confer an award on composer TM Krishna after late Carnatic composer MS Subbulakshmi.
Additional Solicitor General N Venkatraman, appearing for appellant V Srinivasan, Subbulakshmi’s grandson, asked a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar to take up the case immediately as the award ceremony was on Sunday.
“We can return the award if necessary,” the CJI said.
On November 19, a single judge bench of the Madras High Court stopped the Academy from giving the award to Krishna. On appeal, the division bench of the High Court quashed the earlier order.
Challenging this, Venkataraman told the bench that the award was instituted in the name of Subbulakshmi. “An award has been instituted in his name and will be given tomorrow morning at the Music Academy, a hundred-year-old institution that has written an article calling a man sexist. This is the plight of a Bharat Ratna awardee,” Venkataraman said.
He asked the court to postpone Sunday’s event, failing which it would be effective.
Judge Kumar asked, ‘Are there no members of his family in the selection committee?
To this Venkataraman said, “No. There is no one from Subbulakshmi’s family in the committee. That’s the whole difficulty … it’s completely behind them.”
But the CJI said, “It is not that any building has collapsed.” MS Subbulakshmi Award
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